


Do What Must Be Done

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Get Out of the Fridge [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Breastfeeding, Gen, Mental Instability, Psychic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 21:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8177401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: With the twins born, Padmé cannot cope with not knowing. As she and her rescuers choose a destination, a Fallen man finds his worst nightmares may be true, and a Master goes to confront his Student.





	

Two days after the birth and Padmé was already twitchy to get back on top of the pulse of the galaxy.

"We can go to Naboo," she suggested, Leia feeding contently at her breast.

"First place the Emperor would look for you," Ahsoka vetoed, rocking Luke.

"Alderaan? Queen Breha will grant me sanctuary." Padmé counter-offered.

"They'd be highly under suspicion; Organa's been seen in your company too many times. Same reason Chandrila is out, and we'd all stand out too much on Pantora." Ahsoka shifted Luke to her shoulder when he got twitchy, and started gently rubbing and tapping his back to ease the pressure she could feel in him.

"Ahsoka, we need to go somewhere that we can figure out what we are going to do to fix all of this," Padmé said in exasperation.

"I know, but you're choosing the obvious points." Ahsoka glanced over at Rex, sacked out, mostly, on the couch in the room. He had put in a busy morning with Cut working on the farm, and was grabbing sleep while he could. "Mandalore."

"Ahsoka, you left it still in the middle of a war all its own!" Padmé exclaimed.

"Yes, but the Republic won't be able to pay attention to them for a little while, and we made a pretty solid ally in the shape of the most likely future leader." Ahsoka was confident that, for all she had wound up on Bo-Katan's bad side once, that the alliance made during the Siege would hold.

"No." Padmé looked at Leia as the little one gave up on food, and shifted her to pat her back. "Not taking the babies into an active war zone."

"At least in an active one, I'd have a better chance of noticing people trying to kill us," Ahsoka reasoned.

"So we would stand out badly on Pantora, but surely you can sneak on to their world and find out what Senator Chuchi can tell us," Padmé offered as a potential compromise. "And if she says we can reach Bail, we go to Alderaan."

"Except she was on Coruscant and signed the Petition," Ahsoka reminded her. 

"I thought you didn't follow politics," Padmé accused.

"When a Senator needs to vent and talk, I listen. She contacted me in a lull during the Siege," Ahsoka answered. "But your logic is good. Going to one place to listen, and then choosing our destination is probably a good idea." 

"So that's a start. Has anyone ever told you you're stubborn?" Padmé asked, appreciating that the girl wanted to keep her safe, but the war had shaped 'safe' in odd ways.

Ahsoka's eyes were shadowed. "A few times." She shifted Luke into the lined basket they were using as a bassinet currently, as Suu had given her baby furniture to other families. "Corellia. Or Drall. They stayed out of the war, but they're bound to be following events closely. And it would be safer for Rex than trying to enter the Hapes Consortium space."

Padmé added Leia to the basket, half-nodding even as Rex cracked an eyelid and looked to his commander at the mention of his name. 

"Go back to sleep, Rex," Ahsoka soothed.

The eyelid closed, and his breathing evened back out. Padmé arched an eyebrow at the soldier, and Ahsoka shrugged.

"Sleep when you can."

"Good idea, now that we have an idea where to go."

* * *

The young man in a sleek fighter ship looked at the blockade around the planet, and for an instant, he felt nothing but cold, white rage at the possible impediment to his journey.

It was seeing his own capital ship, though, that snapped him into actually thinking, and he opened his communications on the command channel.

"Skywalker here," he announced, even as he doubted that name, doubted everything about claiming to be that man, the one who was a hero. "I **am** landing on Coruscant."

There was a buzz as too many ships tried to demand more, but one ship managed to override them all.

"Good to hear your voice, sir, and we are standing by," Admiral Yularen cut across the chatter. "I take it you are committed to the Republic then, sir?"

There was an edge in the question, and Artoo was warning him of potential hostiles. The young fighter gritted his teeth and gave the answer that was needed.

"I'm still the same man I was in our last campaign, Admiral. I mean to land and figure this out."

"As you will, General Skywalker." The comms silenced, and Artoo noted fewer weapons pointed their way from the capital ships.

All he needed now was his Angel. He had to reach her.

* * *

Mace started to thrash on his cot, and Yoda limped over as quickly as he could to try and settle the feverish man. Obi-Wan took a more vigilant watch on the door, in case the noise drew unwanted attention. This was their second hideaway since finding Mace, for that very reason.

"Shatter… Skywalker…"

Obi-Wan could not help but tense, but figured Mace was nightmaring over not seeing the shatterpoint in time. 

"Calm, quiet, you must be," Yoda said, forcing his will over the injured Jedi. Mace slowly settled, quieting for the moment.

* * *

Cut and Suu were sad to see them go, but Rex had added enough labor to the farm to make the season look far more profitable for the family. Ahsoka had repaired nearly every electronic and mechanical device, improving a few, during the days leading to the twins birth. Though none of them thought of it in quite that way, the guests had given full value for the hospitality and safety.

Now, as they aimed for Drall, as the more mixed population planet in the Corellian system, Ahsoka hoped she was doing the right thing. They had made slings for the babies, fashioned new cloaks to help them hide as spiritual travelers, and gone over all the information Padmé had about Drall.

Rex hadn't shaved since they left Mandalore, and even though the facial hair was sparse so far, it was helping break up the lines of his face. Suu had dyed his hair back to match Cut's, and both fighters had worked hard to salvage their armor into less recognizable pieces, even though it meant giving up the helmet for Rex.

Eventually, they would have to get new armor from somewhere, both of them, if the Republic remained hostile to Jedi.

"Operation find out what the kriff is going on, commencing," Ahsoka muttered as she invoked the deities of her people, and the Force, to watch over them.

* * *

He had no trouble leaving his fighter under Artoo's control, hovering even with Padmé's personal landing platform and bounding to it. He heard nothing, but his code worked as he tapped it into the doorway there. He stepped inside... and emptiness echoed against his senses. He stretched out, though that hurt as much as the cough that had ridden him since waking again, and still there was nothing. He moved through the apartment, trying to tell himself that he was wrong, that she was here somewhere -- she _had_ to be here, he needed her. 

She'd said she would wait. She'd -- she had to be safe. She _had_ to be. Everything he could remember past the chaos and pain had had one purpose. Saving her. She had to be safe. 

She was nowhere to be found. There were lingering traces of -- of Kenobi (Obi-Wan, some piece of him half-wailed) -- and another presence, one that was soothing and infuriating at once, and then... Newer, there was panic, seeking, the familiar presences of his Angel's security roiling with fear. Hunters, someone had come hunting her -- 

He tapped at his comm, trying to raise hers... and it went off only a meter from him. At that, all of his frantic attempts to convince himself that she was somewhere safe collapsed, and he felt a scream building in his chest and his mind alike. 

He didn't try to stop either, letting the fear and rage and desperation rip out of him, as he lifted the cloak thrown across the end of the bed to his nose, falling against the side of it as everything that had been keeping him going -- the need to find her, the need to protect her, save her the way he'd failed to save his mother -- vanished at knowing she was gone .

Several layers down and a quadrant to the south, three Jedi reacted to the eruption within the Force. Mace came alert, for just a moment, reacting to the strong emotions with a wild-eyed look. Yoda flinched, ears laying back, before he focused on calming Mace back down.

And Obi-Wan… Obi-Wan felt all of his bitter feelings of betrayal and grief rise up. He had an unfulfilled mission to tend, and that Force ripple reminded him of it. He stood, pulling his hood up, checking his lightsaber out.

"Master Yoda, may the Force be with you both," he said, his voice putting a final note in it, as he knew, no matter who won the upcoming battle, that he would be dead, either in his soul, or truly one with the Force.

Yoda blinked at him once, sad-eyed, before he dipped his head. "And with you, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan nodded grimly, and set about tracking that feeling back to its source.

Clone presence was lighter than it had been; he wondered if that meant the Senate had decided on a course of action that had brought them more firmly under control. That could be bad or good, depending on who was prevailing. He had not wanted to risk Bail's safety, and Bail was the only Senator he could trust at present.

The closer he got to Padmé's apartment, the worse his dread over this meeting got. It was as he was standing outside, hilt of his weapon in hand but not lit that he truly questioned if he could do as needed and kill the man he had loved for so long.

"I know you are inside," Obi-Wan called through the door, rather than using the code he possessed. Using it would be fuel on the fire, he thought, given Anakin's obsessive tendencies about people or things he considered to be his. He still was powerfully curious why here, not the Chancellor's home or office.

The younger man felt the presence in the outer hallway, knew it -- and part of him raged at the appearance, part of him feared it, and mostly... mostly he simply did not care. It took almost all of his strength to focus enough to trigger the door from where he was, and he did not bother moving. His hands flexed in her cloak, his face buried against it. 

He had been trying to follow his sense of her, follow the trace of her presence from this out, but... he could not. Either he wasn't strong enough -- again -- or she -- 

No. No, he would _not_ believe that vision had come true. He would. not. believe it. 

Obi-Wan stepped in warily, looking through the open space of the apartment and following his wary instincts to find his quarry.

What he saw, though, shocked him, as that was… that was his padawan, in a full meltdown of loss and isolation. The man looked positively too young to be one of the most decorated war heroes… and the slayer of Jedi.

"Anakin?" he asked warily, steeling himself as best he could when there was this deep, unending emptiness radiating off the man.

That sounded as wrong as 'Vader' had, all of his names sounded wrong in his ears, his mind, as the young man looked up, his head tilting slightly. Obi-Wan looked haggard, unkempt... everything he did not normally allow himself, no matter the situation. It was the confusion rippling through the Force that kept him still rather than lunging. Obi-Wan didn't know where his Angel was, either. There was nothing to gain from attacking, and he was so tired of breathing blood and death. 

"She said she would wait..." 

/What?/ Obi-Wan processed that as best he could, even as he began to hope that maybe, like with the clone troopers, there was more at work here than Anakin becoming a malevolent death-dealer. He drew in a deep breath, trying to determine the best course of action.

"She was not here the afternoon after… after the Temple burned," Obi-Wan said in a careful tone. "I came to find her. She was gone, but the communicator was here."

"Threepio's gone, too," the broken man replied, worried about that as well. Threepio, last piece of his first life, gone. He nodded at the mention of the communicator, pointing towards it with his jaw for a moment. "Her people don't know where -- I can feel that, hear it..." None of them had reacted to his presence... likely good for them. They were _supposed_ to keep her safe! 

Obi-Wan moved closer, drawn by the pain and misery, then stopped suddenly as he noticed that Anakin's eyes looked unusual. One was the clear, solid blue that Obi-Wan had seen in a myriad of emotions, currently betraying a lost and hurting boy to him. The other, though, was as yellow as it could be, the near golden hue of the Sith. What was this, and what exactly did he need to do about it?

"Anakin, if you do not know, and she was moved so soon after the attack on us, I can only surmise that the Chancellor placed her somewhere, possibly to control you." It was a risk to phrase it that way, but Obi-Wan needed some indication of if he should strike and try to end this… or if his friend, his brother, his padawan could be saved yet.

The young man watched Obi-Wan tiredly, cough ripping through his lungs, listening. The mention of the Chancellor -- Sith, the Sith _Master_... his friend, safe-not-safe- **pain** \-- made his whole body flinch, parts of his mind screaming almost loud enough to drown out the rest of Obi-Wan's words. But that -- No, the Chancellor wouldn't. He knew what she meant, knew how much he -- "He said he would help me save her..." 

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, despite his wariness, as he had grave suspicions confirmed about Padmé being missing, so far as he could piece together. "Anakin, he used her to leverage you. He never cared about you other than as a tool of power!" When he opened his eyes, it was fully to prepare against an attack he was certain was coming. "I fear for her, if you do not know where she is. Because the Chancellor is dead, and I've heard no rumor of your lady."

Anakin -- the use of that name, over and over, was starting to make it sound less wrong -- hissed at that 'never cared about you', lips skinning back from his teeth as hotly familiar anger welled up in his chest, giving him a little strength -- that wasn't true, it _couldn't_ be, the Chancellor was the one that had always listened, always had **time** for him, never made him feel like everything he _did_ was **wrong** \-- before the last sentence made him flinch violently. "I know," he said, soft, being reminded of the hole in his mind, the absence that had hit him like a hammer-blow -- "it hurts..."

"What hurts, Anakin?" Obi-Wan slowly knelt down, just in front of the younger man, praying his instincts were correct and he wasn't setting himself up for a quick death and the escape of a monster. "Tell me how to help you, how to make the pain stop. If you want to save Padmé, I need you to be stronger, find your way back from this path you are on."

Anakin blinked at Obi-Wan's approach, torn between a whisper of an impulse to attack and a desperation to burrow in against him. His Master -- was Obi-Wan his Master, or was -- had always helped when it was his body in pain... "Where he's not," he answered simply. "It hurts. Everything's... cloudy, except the too-clear things..." 

Hesitantly, Obi-Wan raised the empty hand to touch Anakin's temple, two fingers there. "This is where the pain is? You hurt because the Chancellor is dead?" 

Could it be a ravaged Force Bond? Obi-Wan had spent the first two years teaching Anakin in pain of varying degrees, as he struggled to mitigate the snapped bond that had been destroyed when Qui-Gon was killed.

Anakin nodded, watching that hand lift, and he leaned into the warm, solid, soft touch. "Artoo said I wouldn't wake up, even when he zapped me, for eight days, almost nine." 

/Force protect us all./ Obi-Wan shifted to sit beside Anakin, slowly putting an arm behind the younger man in offer of protection, comfort, maybe healing. He could not escape the memories of the dead sprawled in the Temple, many with lightsaber wounds, but he also felt like there was far more to this than he truly understood.

He did understand that his friend was hurt and possibly mind-ravaged, though. 

"I want to help you. I need to know if you will allow it, and not attack me."

Anakin turned his head, studying the blue eyes fixed on his face, shifting to lean back on the solid arm behind his shoulders. He felt... more ancient than Yoda, and as if he had just walked into the Temple for the first time, still a child half-hiding behind Obi-Wan's robe, all at once. And he hurt. He couldn't find his Angel, couldn't make sure she was safe, that he didn't lose her too, if simple uses of the Force hurt like this. "Make it stop?" 

"Oh my padawan," Obi-Wan breathed, before he sank into the Force, into the bond he had never wanted to sever so much as the day he walked through the Temple. The bond that he now needed, because he needed to heal this man and find the answers to their betrayal.

What he found, though, was a maelstrom of confusion and pain, as well as something struggling to bar him access to part of Anakin. Was it truly Anakin, though? What had been done to him, that in the days since he had left for Utapau that Anakin had Fallen so swiftly? There had been a calm rapport in that final farewell. What had upset it? With all his determination, Obi-Wan threw himself at the pieces that resisted him, trying to blunt them, trying to find the cause and destroy it all.

Anakin heard himself whimper, felt his hands clench on Obi-Wan's robes, as their connection flared to life, as his Master flung his will into... seeing? The darkened places, the spots that _hurt_. His terrors, the dead-star dragon he'd thought he'd killed -- had he killed it? No, that was Vader that had... was he Vader? It _hurt_ , and part of him wanted to disappear into the easy cold where nothing could hurt... but... that was where the pain was strongest? 

//I need you to fight with me, Anakin. No one stops us when we are together in our battles,// Obi-Wan coaxed, his voice entreating and gentle, hiding all of his own pain and anger. That, he was adept at, had felt calm was always the way to deal with his padawan's mercurial moods. He traced all of these broken pieces, raw and edged with Dark energy, trying to find the main node, seeking to banish it from Anakin.

That was true. Nothing had ever been able to stop them when they were together. Anakin clung a little tighter, his flesh fingers starting to ache a little, but... //Fight what? It hurts, you said you'd help....// Whatever he was doing, it wasn't helping, it hurt _worse_ for the brightness of Obi-Wan's mind brushing sure and gentle over his... 

//I need you to reject these parts, Anakin. I need you to see that they are not you. I need you to help be the man I know you are, the one that gives all for his men, for his padawan, for the woman he loves! Take your attachments and **use** them to tear away these poisonous bits that want you cold and alone and miserable!//

Obi-Wan was gambling. It was the greatest fear of the Order, that Attachments left a person vulnerable, but he had seen so much in his years that defied that. As broken a man as he had become by the pieces of his heart being cut away from him, he had watched Anakin excel on the strength of what had to be done to save others! He took that faith in Anakin and showed it to him, poured it into the shell of a man he was holding close.

Shock nearly knocked Anakin flat at the passion pouring from his calm, reserved Master, passion that flew in the face of everything the Order had tried to beat into him... but... Rex. Echo and Hardcase and Jesse. (Fives and Tup and Kix -- all dead/lost because --) Suddenly bright rage flared up in him. He'd... forgotten?... that? Forgotten the way his men had been slain for trying to _warn_ him of -- 

He couldn't let them down again. They weren't -- they were why he did everything in the field, why he pushed so hard. He'd -- he'd failed them, forgetting, but how had he possibly... What had the Chancellor _done_ , that he could forget Fives' desperate, pleading eyes, his warning? 

/I am your friend, Anakin,/ a ghost's voice murmured, and he snarled, flinging his rage at that, trying to burn it away. 

There was definitely a reaction to that, as all of the influences flared and fought back… but Anakin wasn't alone. Even as Anakin himself went unconscious, maybe catatonic, Obi-Wan followed those webbed lines and mercilessly began burning them out with all the energy he could summon.

He was not going to lose his padawan like this!


End file.
